Gambia: Ahmadi Muslims Face Rising Persecution

(JollofNews) – The Ahmadiyya Muslim community in the Gambia is coming under increased persecution by the country’s predominant Sunni Muslim sect.

The small community of several thousands consider themselves Muslims, but that is a view rejected by mainstream Islamic sects.

The Gambia’s main Muslim body, Supreme Islamic Council, responsible for the general activities of all Islamic affairs in the country has classed Ahmadis as non-Muslims, who (they say) only use the Muslim declaration of faith (Kalimah) to confuse themselves with other Muslim sects.

The council has issued a fatwa in 2015 forbidding the burial of Ahmadis in Muslim cemeteries.

“It is forbidden by Shari’ah to bury a non-Muslim at a Muslim cemetery. It is authenticated by Shari’ah law that Ahmadiyya are a non-Muslim community. Therefore it is totally forbidden [for them] to bury their dead at a Muslim cemetery,” the Muslim council said.

Since the fatwa was issued, Ahmadis in the Gambia are… read more at source.